Perhaps the allure of the Transformers brand convinced you to download Transformers Legends and you want to know more. Perhaps you've toyed with card battlers before but never quite got the hang of them. Perhaps your mouse isn't working properly.

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

Whatever your reason for clicking on this guide, I can guarantee you one thing: the following hints and tips will enable you to transform the early segments of the game from 'meaningless grind' to 'slightly more useful grind'.

Thank me tomorrow.

Let's begin

I'm going to assume you know how to get around the game's menus. But if you aren't familiar with the layout, you may want to spend the next five minutes getting accustomed to it.

Ready to go? Good.

In freemium card battlers, you need to be aware that you're rewarded constantly early on, and that you should take advantage of this in whatever ways possible.

One way you can do this is by significantly extending how long you can play before needing to wait for your Energon and Battle Cubes to recharge. Like a lot of Transformers Legends, it's all in the maths.

You'll notice that every time you achieve a new level - after collecting XP during battles - you'll completely regain your Energon and Battle Cubes. To take advantage of this, you should go through the single-player campaign and then, when you've run out of Energon, go and take on some opponents in the PvP to gain more experience. You may well gain a level as a result.

You can also use up a Small Energon or Battle Cube Recharge if you're close to the experience threshold, as it will usually be enough to just tip you onto the next level. By using this technique, you should rack up plenty of playtime early on, allowing you to really get to grips with the game and build a strong deck.

Keep 'em coming

The rewards continue to pile on if you sign in every day.

I found that waking up in the morning and playing for ten minutes straight was a perfect way to gain access to a full tank of Energon and Battle Cubes. Check out that login bonus, too! This gets you into a rhythm of playing the game regularly, and that's the kind of discipline you need to develop if you're going to play the game seriously.

When you fire up Transformers Legends, scroll down the home page to find the menu option that whisks you away to your rewards page. Grab the free card for the day and pick up any other goodies you've amassed while playing so that they don't go to waste.

Bonuses for just playing the game can be pretty neat, too. You're given Medals occasionally, and you can exchange these for common and, sometimes, rare cards.

With so many opportunities for accumulating character and weapon cards, you'll fill your deck in no time. Furthermore, you should Trans Scan two cards to combine them into a single card and start clearing your deck. And if you're really serious about this spring clean, you can upgrade your most powerful cards with lesser ones so that they increase in level and power.

Sacrifice or sell anything that's easy to obtain, as you'll no doubt receive more when you go back to previous missions to fill out your deck and find those rares.

Mini-tips

- In the single-player mode, you'll regularly run into foes that fire missiles at you. If you tap on them, you'll be awarded a small number of Credits. If you can time your defence right, you'll be awarded a "Perfect" and consequently a few more Credits. To do this is really easy: time your press so that you make contact with the missile just as it turns from red to green.

- You can take part in both the Autobot and Decepticon campaign at the same time - this is something you should absolutely be doing. This essentially forces you to play early-level content twice, enabling you to build up your experience and deck quickly. It'll also make end-of-campaign bosses that little bit easier to defeat.

- One final tip for you: don't forget that you not only have character cards up your virtual sleeve, but you also have weapon cards. Reuniting Bumblebee with his gun is one mission you will want to complete, for example, for you are given a big bonus for doing so. But don't forget to upgrade some of your standard weapons, too, while you're busy trying to reunite each bot with its gun.

Got any tips to share? Let us and the rest of the PG community know them by leaving them in the comments box below.